Education reform was the major campaign issue that Stanley Aronowitz, the Green Party candidate for governor of New York State, spoke about to an audience of future educators at UB on Tuesday.
According to David Vater, Jr., vice president of the Educational Leadership and Policy Graduate Student Association, the event was arranged in less than a week and attracted 19 graduate students in education programs.
One of the goals of Aronowitz's campaign, and of the Green Party agenda, is to change the state of modern education by eliminating standardized testing for grade school students and increasing funding for public education by restructuring the tax system to prevent tax cuts for the rich.
Aronowitz also spoke of assumptions made by people involved in the public education system that no longer have relevance, but still exist.
"There was (once) an assumption that immigrant populations would never graduate high school; they would drop out and get a factory job," Aronowitz said. "There are no good factory jobs anymore, yet this situation persists. These assumptions are programming students for failure."
For students in economically challenged areas to overcome obstacles to success, Aronowitz said their regional public schools must have more funding.
According to Aronowitz, the key to improving education in elementary and secondary schools is improving the way the teachers themselves are educated. He said that teachers do not view themselves to be intellectuals; rather, they view themselves to be "transmitters of knowledge."
His plan for education reform calls for preventing the "neo-conservative efforts to stamp out critical thinking."
"In my experience, the current education curriculum does not encourage nay-sayers," Aronowitz said. "The heart of citizenship in a democracy is education - the ability to address the panoply of opinion. I went into education to help prepare people to take over their world."
Vater agreed with the views Aronowitz expressed.
"I think Stan brings up very salient points for education reform," Vater said. "I find his platform overall very appealing."
Al LaBruna, the Green Party congressional candidate for the 27th district and a student at Buffalo State College, said this year's election is very important to the future of the Green Party. If Aronowitz does not receive at least 50,000 votes in November's election, said LaBruna, the Green Party will not be guaranteed a spot on future gubernatorial ballots and would have to go "county to county to get signatures."
But LaBruna was "confident that the party will meet and exceed that number."
"The keystone to real democracy in the United States is a publicly funded election," LaBruna said. "Politicians shouldn't be bought - big corporations aren't Americans."
Teresa Lawrence, president of the ELP-GSA, said her club does not endorse Aronowitz, but it simply offered him a place to express his views.
"We were, and remain, steadfast in providing forums for people to speak, thus providing wide-ranging opinions and information, allowing individuals to synthesize and make decisions that are good for them," said Lawrence.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
